UNC club challenges students to survive in Chapel Hill's treacherous wilderness

As burning tiki torches lined the Forest Theater against the night sky, what was once the charming college town of Chapel Hill transformed into a ruthless remote island in the tropics. At least that's what Jake Schattin imagined for the 16 contestants on Survivor Carolina. 

Survivor Carolina was started by Schattin last semester. The club's aim is to recreate CBS' iconic game show, Survivor, on UNC's campus. 

The idea for UNC's Survivor club came together when Schattin was aimlessly scrolling on YouTube and came across a video by The University of Maryland's Survivor Maryland club. Inspired to find a similar community at Carolina, he was determined to find fellow fans of the show to start a chapter of the club in Chapel Hill.

For a whole day, Schattin planned out a semester of Survivor Carolina. While he only expected to host 16 contestants, Schattin wound up with over 70 applications after posting about the club on Yik Yak; Survivor Carolina transformed from a dream into a reality. 

The process of Survivor Carolina is fairly similar to CBS' Survivor. Every applicant went through a round of zoom interviews. The 16 chosen contestants met at their first challenge, where they balanced ping pong balls on rulers. Before coming into the challenge, the contestants did not know which tribe they were on and were only told their pre-assigned tribe after they dropped their respective ball. After a whole tribe had been eliminated from the challenge, they were deemed the losing tribe and were sent to tribal council.

Tribal councils were held at the Forest Theater when a tribe lost a challenge. The losing tribe collectively voted off one contestant before the next challenge. After the first six tribal councils, the remaining contestants merged into one tribe. 

Every few days, the group met to participate in challenges around campus, which tested the group's skill sets.

Challenges varied weekly. Some challenges required more physical strength, such as tug-of-war or holding up a bag of flour, some required mental strength for games like group puzzles, and others resembled ones seen in the CBS series, such as the iconic blindfold challenge.

“Some of the challenges were super fun,” Erin Jordan-Cornell, a season one contestant, said. “Some of them were so frustrating, and they would take so long.” 

Throughout the game, cast members were also encouraged to find hidden immunity idols around campus. Contestants were allowed to meet outside of challenges to form alliances and strategize for the game.

“There's some drama — some people are gonna be villains and some are gonna be heroes,” Jordan-Cornell said. “Hopefully, I'm a hero.” 

Unlike the television series, contestants were not expected to sleep in the wilderness — thankfully. 

Starting this club at UNC was important for Schattin to build a diverse community of students with one common denominator: a love of Survivor. While all of the contestants represented different character archetypes and held their own identity, Survivor Carolina brought a group of diverse students together who are friends for life, as Schattin said. 

“That's what I'm excited to bring to season two, as well,” he said. “To cast a wide variety of people who wouldn't usually be friends, but still have to be forced to work with each other, and then may end up being friends afterwards.”

Season one contestant Maggie Waters agreed with the sentiment that Survivor Carolina was more than just a game. In addition to the community building, the club provided a much needed break from studying; contestants were not only surviving the game, but also surviving the lead-up to exam season last spring. 

“It really was a type of outlet that took you away from the books, which was cool,” Waters  said. 

Schattin and his production team's plans for season two are still in the works, though the production team is certainly prepared for another season, with many returning members already staffed on the behind-the-scenes crew. Of course, gamemaster Schattin has some ideas stored for the season two cast already.

The season two production team is currently looking for its cast members, and all interested students are welcome to sign up for Survivor Carolina. Inquiring players can sign up for season two through the club's Instagram. 

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